JERUSALEM, 9 September 2004 — Israel’s Supreme Court granted yesterday a stay of execution to Palestinian cave dwellers in the West Bank from government efforts to throw them off of their land. “The Supreme Court rejected the request by the state to demolish their tents and shacks, and said that everything that stands in Susya can stay,” Israeli lawyer Shlomo Lecker, who represents 15 Palestinian families, told AFP.

The court also ruled that the Palestinians could apply for building permits and that it would convene again in six months should the government turn down their requests. The families, who live off their land southeast of Hebron near the Jewish settlement of Susya, saw their caves bulldozed by the army in 2001 and had to leave the area until court ruling later that year allowed them to go back.

But the ruling was temporary and the state of Israel recently asked it be rescinded. The Palestinians have been living under makeshift tents since. The court examined yesterday a petition filed by the villagers alongside the state’s demand for expulsion orders to be approved.

Apart from asking permission to build concrete structures, the Palestinians also sought army protection against systematic settler violence and harassment, but Lecker said that issue was not addressed by the court. “We’re all very happy about the decision. I can’t begin to imagine what it would have meant if the court had not ruled in our favor,” said Nasr Nawajaa, a 22-year-old cave dweller.

But he said he was not confident about obtaining building permits. “We’ve been applying over and over again for the past years and were turned down systematically. This time around at least the court will reconvene and we may then stand a chance in six months from now,” he added.

“I will die on the land of my ancestors, no matter what,” said 75-year-old Sara Nawajaa on Tuesday, who, like another 14 peasant families, saw the cave she was living in razed by army bulldozers three years ago. She has since been living under a makeshift tent that hardly provides any protection against the blazing summer heat and bone-chilling winters.

Residents of the hilly and fertile region of the southern West Bank want to be granted the necessary permits to build concrete structures and for army protection from settlers living just a few hundred meters away. The petition also calls for an end to army demolitions and for the removal of six trailers near the Susya settlement which the villagers slam as illegal expansion on their land.

Lecker on Tuesday labeled the case “difficult” as he underscored the government and settlers’ “intention to clear the area of Palestinians.”

“The settlers in Susya are known to be extremists and have good connections with Israel’s right-wing politicians. They also run the civil administration here,” said Lecker, in reference to the Israeli Army’s civilian arm that administers the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Palestinians in Susya complained of incessant harassment and threats by their settler neighbors who they said often act with the full knowledge or even backing of troops posted in and around the settlement. Nasr said he filmed a woman being beaten up by settlers in front of her three young daughters last Saturday.

“Thank God they didn’t see me. I took to the video tape to Taayush — an Israeli rights group — and I hope this will help us at Wednesday’s court ruling,” he said on Tuesday. The young man, who used to work in Israel before the intifada broke out in September 2000, is now forced to work the land - or what little is left of it.

“Soldiers near the settlement don’t let us access our fields,” he said, pointing to a soldier stationed a few hundred yards away. Families with children have long left Susya as roads to the closest town of Yata that hosts the only hospital and school in the vicinity were sealed off soon after September 2000.

Nasr like others hoped the court would rule in their favor but was worried about another looming battle over Israel’s controversial West Bank wall. Work on the southern sanction began on Sunday and is set to leave Susya stranded in a no man’s land, sealing their isolation from Hebron.

The wall aims to incorporate as many settlements as possible into Israel, and at least three around Susya. “We will be cut off from the West Bank without being recognized as residents of Israel. It’s obvious they want to get rid of us,” sighed 61-year-old Alia Nawajaa, a relative and member of the same clan, also vowing to “stay put even if they try to remove me by force.”